she turned three

and we celebrated with her "favowite things evah" - shoes and the color pink!

reused the birthday banner from last year, but updated it a bit.

there was a request for "lots and lots of pink sparkly cupcakes."

pin the shoes on the gia.
gia poster courtesy of the amazing uncle cameron

waiting patiently for her cupcake.
isn't this the sweetest little expression of contentment?

we collected shoes to donate.

the top of our favor boxes filled with (fruit by the) feet for wearing your favorite shoes, (candy) necklaces to dress-up, and (hershey's) kisses from the birthday girl.

the tutu and sparkle shoes worn daily at casa hart were paired with a mama made shoe shirt. (special request from the birthday girl)

considering we had a baby turn four weeks old the day of the party, i am pretty amazed we even pulled off this party. the key was keeping it simple. as long as we maintain healthy boundaries, i think it is important to keep on living life. too much has been missed in the past due to the limitation of living with fibro. i have learned to change my standards rather than just let the events pass by. so, yes, i sent an evite for this party instead of making super cute pink and sparkly paper invites. and we served simple veggie, cheese, and meat trays, bread, pita, and crackers, and juice boxes instead of coming up with a shoe themed menu with cute finger foods and frothy fruity punch. and my fun idea of decorating shoe boxes for the party favors was forfeited to using candy boxes i had leftover from christmas gifts 5 years back with the kiddos names simply written on top.

i used circle punches (2 and 1 inch sizes), scrapbook paper, and a fine tip sharpie to make most of the decorations. i attached them to toothpicks for the cupcakes and added them to the birthday banner, favor boxes and donation bin to coordinate. we printed out coloring sheets found on-line for a simple craft activity (designing shoes with markers, glitter, pom poms, stickers, and construction paper) and played a simple game (pin the shoes on the gia) easy for the 2 and 3 year old population. the shoe shirt was a small final touch that cost me 5 dollars (shirt from meijer) and 15 minuted to cut and sew the applique from fabric in the stash.

how have the last three years gone by so fast? i spent this morning rewatching the videos taken on her second birthday - too precious. jesse and i have been very sentimental as we realize our baby is now fully in girlhood. can we just slow things down and keep all three of these children in our care from growing up? we are so thankful for being given the opportunity to raise them. but i too often take it all for granted. sooner than later i will have to push them (be it ever so gently) out of the nest. (sigh) i think i need to go have a good cry now.

(and happy 3rd birthday to our niece sofia! love you!)